World Robot Olympiad among school students to be held in Moscow

MOSCOW, November 12. /TASS/. World competition in robotics among students of general schools will be held in Sochi, the Deputy Minister of Education and Science, Veniamin Kaganov told a news conference at TASS that was devoted to the forum titled 'The Days of Robotics in Sochi'.

"Robotics is gaining an ever greater place in the sphere of education and this applies not only to the training of specialists," Kaganov said. "This concerns our children because robots require ability for teamwork and develop many more useful qualities."

Russia received the right to host the Olympiad after it had proposed topic of ‘Robots and Space Research’.

“We didn’t take a decision on the venue of the Olympiad at once but the Krasnodar territory or, to be more precise, the Sochi Olympic park seemed to us to be the best choice at a certain moment,” he said, adding that not only the Olympiad as such but also a comprehensive project of the Innovations Forum, an interactive exhibition and the Robotfest South regional festival of robotics would be held there.

Russia will be represented by 44 teams from thirteen regions. On the whole, the Olympiad will bring together about 2,000 young inventors from 48 countries.

Sergei Mustafin, the coach of the Russian national team said the Russian kids would certainly face tough competition from their Asiatic peers, who score impressive results at each Olympiad.

“The teams from Taiwan, China, Japan, and South Korea are really strong contenders for us,” he said.

Mustafin stressed the popularity of robotics among Russian school students. “It attracts them much stronger than the standard classical school lessons,” he said.

“At the lessons of robotics, kids get cross-disciplinary knowledge in programming, mechanics, cybernetics, and exact sciences.

A unique event, an international forum of innovations in robotic technologies titled The Days of Robotics in Sochi will be held in the Olympic Park from November 21 to November 23.

It will bring together key players interested in development of educational robotics - ministerial officials, teachers and researchers from leading Russian universities, executives of big corporations, international experts, renowned researchers, university and school students inspired by creativity in the field of engineering.